Part 5: “The fight that broke out in the previous episode continues, and more of the denizens of the inner complex get in on the act.”

Part 6: “Our heroes get their first look at the mind flayers’ victim, as the fighting spills over into another room of Torog’s torture den.”

Part 7: “The PCs learn the identity of the illithids’ torture victim, gain additional insight into the true Dawn War and the nature of the godslayer shard, and beat a hasty retreat from Torog’s torture den!”

Adventure Notes

The Gods Must Be Crazy

Podcast Release Notes

From Icosahedrophilia: “Our heroes conclude their business in Maelbrathyr and make ready to sail for Erelhei-Cinlu, intending to see Koralina’a safely home. The crew welcomes a new addition, the half-dwarven (mul) runepriest Bost, and learns that dead men do tell tales.” The Broken Promise finally arrives in Erelhei-Cinlu so that our heroes can fulfill their vow to deliver Koralina’a safely to her matron mother’s manse. Upon so doing, the crew learns of some strange happenings at the city’s central temple, the Fane of Lolth.

Adventure Notes

blue lichen changes to red lichen in Mael.

Houndrare’i’a (sp?) (“H.”)

H. spotted by Tyria’s guttersnipe

kills drow male slave in pits

of House Godeep in Erelhei-Cinlu (EC)

clan involved in slave trade

clans are constantly fighting, no one knows if Godeep is at war w/ anyone else

H. perhaps involved in slave trade?

Tyria talks to H.

H. agreed to pay 200gp for passage and discretion

Slave trader Kazoo

middle-aged

about the dead male drow: injured adventurer, found him unconscious in a field of fungus

“are you going to set him free? Are you from his matron mother?”

Bost (Matt’s new PC)

half-dwarven (mul) Runepriest

supernal runes tattooed on his hands

Bost explains

has to find Ta’rog; came into the world for that purpose (?)

Ta’rog cursed Mael; a curse so strong it apparently can bind the gods (why the aspects of Moradin and Bahamut cannot escape)

Bost went on foolhearty quest, inspired by the gods, and was captured by the slave traders

The Bleak Carnival: Jacques dies, Alard finds god(s), and the party splits

Pre-Meeting Info

The crew of the Broken Promise, with new friend Tailer along, has arrived in Maelbrathyr on the way to escort Koralina’a and now Houndrari’ia (the drow you rescued from the huge crocodile) back to their home in Erelhei-Cinlu. You’ve arrived just in time for the Bleak Carnival, the Underdark’s finest annual slave market! You’ll need to gain passage through Maelbrathyr and then make your way across the sea below (which probably means hiring a boat) to get to Erelhei-Cinlu.

Adventure Notes

Oliver Piggot: introduced the party to Maelbrathyr (Mael.) and the Bleak Carnival (BC).

Torog: insane god who carved the Underdark

Torog pulled the entire city of Mael. into the Underdark

This is also responsible for the current 4-tier structure of the city

Maelbrathyr

four tiers (-often referred to generally as “the shallows” and “the deeps”-)

The Bleak Carnival

different merch on different tiers, top to bottom:

Tier 1: the dock, beasts, arms

Tier 2: mercenaries and slaves

Tier 3: Magical Items

Tier 4: The most curious and rare pieces

The PCs arrived at “night” and decided to sleep at an inn near the dock

ENCOUNTER: Purple Worm

In the middle of the night, a purple worm came crashing down to Mael. along with the Broken Promise (helped along by Berrian casting Summon Winds). The PCs defeated the worm, but not before Jacques was killed in the battle. His body was recovered and is currently being held by the party (on the ship or at the inn?).

Maelbrathyr Day 2

The PCs shopped around at the Bleak Carnival.

Alanso gleaned the following information:

Erelhei-Cinlu contains four districts, referred to as “ghettos.” Non-Drow can move throughout the city during the daytime, however non-drow and non-citizens must stay in the “foreigners” ghetto at night.

House of Aleval (Koralina’a’s House)

One of 8 ruling houses in Mael.

Matron Mother: Ana’Shrinarrean

most diplomatic/political

apt to hold non-drow relations

Other houses dislike them (probably b/c of previous)

Kora’s family probably left originally on a diplomatic mission to form an alliance or trade route

According to Kora, “the incunabala know everything”

N’kai

An ancient name for the deepest part of the Underdark, aka “The Deeps”

Blue lichen becomes red as you go deeper, which gives way to total darkness in The Deeps

An emerald city under water

Torog cast Mael. into the Underdark, and a portion of the city was flooded

Hannault Thrayban: head of the Transportation Wizard’s Guild, whose house is on the second tier
The PCs (well, Alard, Tyria, and Alanso) visited Threyban’s house to find him assaulted in his sleep by ghosts. The heroes (eventually) figured out how to drive away the threat using the runes in Thrayban’s house. For saving him, Thrayban granted the PCs free passage for the Broken Promise.

back to Forgehome, onward to Malbrathir

On the way back to the dragon’s plateau there was a room in which all the PCs were apparently teleported to different locations for a few moments before returning to the room. I’ll mention two of the most interesting: Tyria was transported back to Forgehome and overheard a back-alley conversation between a dwarf and an elf (or drow?), concerning ill-will toward a certain group (which we quickly assumed meant us). Also, Lithian was transported to a bazaar where he saw Gretchen van Fleet.

While considering how to best approach the dragon’s plateau, a gnome waved the party over to a cave in the side of the cliff, and claimed there was a tunnel which ended near the tunnel we used originally to enter the area. This was a trap, but after we killed one creature in the cave the gnome ran away to alert the dragon.

We quickly climbed up to the top of the plateau, where we discovered that, in the presence of the red fungal light in that section of the Underdark, a short rest takes 15 minutes and you can only spend one healing surge (but we still made it before the dragon arrived). The dragon had it out for Zebith, so we got him to the exit as the party gradually moved that way. We stacked a bunch of conditions on the dragon early on and after about 4 rounds (I think) she surrendered, which we did not accept. We continued to fight while the dragon attempted to fly away, and was eventually slain by one of the 4 attacks of opportunity against it. Alard bagged the dragon’s head as a trophy. There was nothing of interest in the ruined city and we couldn’t find the dragon’s lair, which we assumed was in one of the caves in the walls, though these were virtually inaccessible without flying.

Fast forward back to Hammerfast, where we found Berrian in the Arcane Star, lounging around with the Necronomicon, talking about arcana with the two tieflings and a humanoid who appeared to be made of crystal. Berrian seemed to be back to full mental capacity and aligned again with our cause, though still protective of the book. The crystal-man (Tim’s new character) identified himself as “Tailor,” a name assumed from his chosen profession of tailoring. I’m still unclear on Tailor’s race name and class, but basically he’s a psionic controller. I’d ask Tim or Chris for the details about Tailor’s history, and the new revelation from the Book of Death. Oh yes, Berrian has discovered some new information in the Book, concerning the names of a few Great Old Ones, more history of the material realm, and an underwater city where a piece of the Godslayer Shard is located. The finding we focused on was Yug’sukkoth (best guess on the spelling), whose name had come up earlier in the campaign when one of our dwarf companions was driven insane (in the teleportation room).

We brought the Promise down to Forgehome, but ended up taking passage on another boat to Malbrathir (again, best guess on the spelling), which is apparently on the way to [not even going to try to write Coralina’s city]. On the way we saved a drow female from a crocodile and brought her back to Maelbrathyr. We ended the session right when we learned that a slave-trading festival is currently taking place in Maelbrathyr.

An excursion to the Shadowfell

Our heroes plunged through the Shadowgate in our August 28, 2010 adventure, entitled “The Nameless City” and presented in podcast episodes 101–105. In part 1, the PCs planned their investigation and made their first foray into the nameless city itself. Part 2 presented the battle in which the adventurers defended themselves against their beasts of burden, domesticated catoblepases that apparently reverted to an almost feral state due to the Shadowfell’s necrotic energies. In Part 3, the PCs investigated a series of three cramped caves found in the low cliff curving along the southwestern edge of the valley in which the nameless city stood. Beneath one cavern, the PCs discovered a low tunnel in which a series of short glass cases held the mummified bodies of short, barely-describable creatures facing, on the opposite wall, a mural depicting the nameless city’s history from its establishment by these creatures to its destruction at the hands of a warforged army. In part 4, the adventurers delved deeper underground, finding themselves in a chamber filled with dormant snakes and, floating high above them, one of the six sundered pieces of the Godslayer Shard! Through a feat of acrobatic derring-do, the PCs recovered the sliver. In so doing, however, they apparently awakened Yig, the Father of Serpents, from his deathless sleep. In part 5, the PCs—realizing that Yig was much stronger than them—fled from the nameless city and back into their own world. Once back, the PCs went back to the dragon’s lair to loot her hoard, and then returned to Markathesh, intending to set sail shortly thereafter.

Our group played “The Valley of the Shadow of Death” on August 14, 2010, and presented it in episodes 96–100 of the podcast. In part 1 of this adventure, the PCs launched an assault on Gnash’s desert camp, beginning with a well-coordinated ranged attack from the bluff above and a miniature stampede of Gnash’s pack animals through the camp. Our heroes’ battle against Gnash and his crew continued into part 2. In part 3, the PCs achieved victory over Gnash and his comrades, and the turned their attention to the Shadowgate. Their attempts to place the structure’s five movable runic blocks into the appropriate positions and orientations failed, summoning the portal’s four undead guardians. When the guardians ordered the PCs to leave, S3rv0’s persistence in manipulating the runic blocks provoked the guardians to attack. Part 4 began with one guardian’s initial attack against S3rv0, and then presented the first hour of the ensuing combat beween the PCs and the Shadowgate’s guardians. Part 5 carried the battle to its conclusion, resulting in victory for the PCs.